


The Light and Wheat of Your Beloved Hands

by Ribby



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Poetic!Sean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-26
Updated: 2006-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-22 00:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30030159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ribby/pseuds/Ribby
Summary: Another's words can suffice when yours are not enough.
Relationships: Sean Bean/Viggo Mortensen





	The Light and Wheat of Your Beloved Hands

**Author's Note:**

> The title and bit of poetry here are from Sonnet 89 by Pablo Neruda; the full text is at the bottom, if you're interested. I've been singing a gorgeous setting of this poem in choir, and it only just occurred to me last night that it speaks very much to my VigBean muses (well, and my Aragorn/Boromir muses, but I didn't want to rewrite that scene again...). Also, thanks to [Seleneheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seleneheart) for bringing my VigBean muses out of hiding! *smooches her*

When they stopped for lunch, Viggo and Sean retreated to their usual table, not wanting to break the mood that had grown between them while they shot the first half of Boromir's death scene. In companionable silence, they ate quickly, wanting a few minutes to themselves before they plunged back into the fray.

Viggo broke the silence first, with, unsurprisingly, a scrap of poetry.

"When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:  
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands  
To pass their freshness over me once more:  
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny."

"Hmmm," Sean purred. "That's nice... Neruda, isn't it?"

Viggo looked surprised. "Yeah... didn't know you read him."

"Yep." Sean looked smug, and the surprise on Viggo's face grew even stronger when, with a reasonably good accent, Sean gave him back the Spanish.

"Cuando yo muera quiero tus manos en mis ojos:  
quiero la luz y el trigo de tus manos amadas  
pasar una vez más sobre mí su frescura:  
sentir la suavidad que cambió mi destino."

Viggo broke into laughter. "Just when I think I have you pegged, Bean, you surprise me."

Sean grinned. "Can't have me being predictable all the time, can we?"

Viggo grinned back, and grabbed Sean's forearms in a warriors' grip, which Sean returned. They held it for a moment, the words of Neruda still between them, then dropped their hands, Aragorn and Boromir returning.

Then Peter called them, and the moment was broken.

"Are you ready to die for me, Sean?"

Studiously serious, and trying desperately not to laugh, Sean retorted, "What, again? You know, there's only so many times one can die for one's king." And they both laughed, and headed off to their marks.

But the words stayed with Sean while they filmed innumerable angles and reaction shots, while he swore fealty to his King over and over again. _When I die, I want your hands on my eyes_.

"All right, Sean, time to die now... Boromir's exhausted, but he's given Aragorn everything he needed to--it's time to let go."

Sean focused on Viggo, and delivered his final line with as much feeling as he could. "I would have followed you--my brother, my captain, my King."

As he let himself slump, he felt tears against his face, and a warm, callused pair of hands--Aragorn's hands--ghost over his eyes, closing them in "death."

"Be at peace, Son of Gondor."

In Viggo's touch were the words he couldn't say... but that was all right, for someone had said them for both of them.

SONNET 89 by Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973)

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes:  
I want the light and wheat of your beloved hands  
To pass their freshness over me once more:  
I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,  
I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you  
to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together,  
to continue to walk on the sand we walked on.

I want what I love to continue to live,  
And you whom I love and sang above everything else  
To continue to flourish, full flowered:

So that you can reach everything my love directs you to,  
So that my shadow can travel along in your hair,  
So that everything can learn the reason for my song!


End file.
